Cong-led UPA dispensation was 'bhrashtachar ki dukan': Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar

The 10 years of the Congress-led UPA regime were ''a lost decade'' and saw a ''bhrashtachar ki dukan'', Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Friday. He also took a swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's ''mohabbat ki dukan'' (shop of love) pitch and called him a ''prolific foreign tourist''.

Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here to highlight the Narendra Modi government's achievements in the electronics and technology sector, Chandrasekhar said India is witnessing the ''most exciting'' period in its history as it is reaching new heights due to the prime minister's decisive and effective policy decisions.

''If we look at the period from 2004 to 2014 from the point of view of progress made in the technology space, the most appropriate description for it would be bhrashtachar ki dukan (shop of corruption),'' the Union minister of state for entrepreneurship, skill development, electronics and technology said.

''And the consequences of that were crony lending and crony contracts. It was the period when the 2G scam happened, the Antrix-Devas scam happened ... the period of greatest destruction of capital in wealth. Investors were leaving India and BSNL was completely destroyed,'' he added.

Chandrasekhar described the 10-year period from 2004 to 2014 under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) as a ''lost decade'' and said the decade starting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the helm is the decade of ''India's techade''.

In the nine years since the UPA rule, India has come a long way under Modi's leadership, he added.

It has become the world's ''largest connected'' country in the cyberspace today from the ''largest unconnected country'' in 2014, Chandrasekhar said.

''India is now seeing the world's fastest 5G roll-out. We are having a high degree of indigenous 5G components,'' he said.

Digital connectivity has got a ''boost'' in the country, the minister said, adding that it is the ''vision and mission'' of the Modi government to ensure safety and security in the cyberspace.

Sharing the status of manufacturing of electronic products in the country, Chandrasekhar took a swipe at former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan and called him ''a new Congress member''.

''Sometimes, Raghuram Rajan, a new Congress member, talks about it. For him, the moral of the story is that you will embarrass yourself less if you do not talk much about the subject you do not know much about,'' he said.

The minister said India's digital economy is growing fast and is more than 10 per cent of the GDP today as compared to the 3 or 3.5 per cent in 2014.

''By 2025-26, the digital economy, as a percentage of the total GDP, will be almost 20,'' he asserted.

Chandrasekhar said India has taken a ''massive leap'' in electronic products manufacturing.

''We are manufacturing 100 per cent mobile phones in the country, unlike importing 80 per cent in the past,'' he said, adding, ''Last year, we exported mobile phones worth over Rs 1 lakh crore.'' Chandrasekhar said India is becoming a ''global trusted partner'' for manufacturing under Modi.

''In the manufacturing sector, we are seeing the emergence of world-class factories, huge investments and the creation of a big number of jobs,'' he said. India's innovation economy is creating investment, jobs and the ''highest ever'' foreign direct investment (FDI), he added.

Through direct benefit transfer (DBT), financial assistance under various government schemes is directly reaching the beneficiaries without any ''leakage, corruption or middlemen'', the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said.

''Showing his intellectual gigantism, (Congress leader) P Chidambaram had mocked this DBT in the Rajya Sabha, saying it was impossible to implement. The people of India today know what changes Modiji has brought in their lives through the use of technology,'' he said, targeting the former finance minister.